The Legal Right’s Unofficial Birthday
Forty-four years ago, a conservative legal convention offered disaffected students an identity—and hope.
The Federalist Society, America's highest court didn't become a conservative stronghold overnight. This shift began decades ago when three law students at elite universities in the early 1980s felt frustrated by a perceived liberal environment. Lee Liberman, Steve Calabresi, and David McIntosh founded the Federalist Society, holding their inaugural conference in April 1982 at Yale University.
The informal name concealed the enthusiasm of the weekend, as young Reagan supporters gathered, meeting new people and engaging in conversations with notable figures like Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia. Though idealistic about Reagan's era and the rise of a more rigid conservatism, known as the New Right, they acknowledged they were a small minority in academia and law.
Throughout the 1980s, movements opposing racism, sexism, and injustice dominated campus life, with many students embracing Marxist and socialist ideologies. To succeed, these young conservatives required a platform and strategy. Bork, recently appointed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, emphasized the left-wing dominance in media and academia, and the Supreme Court's creation of new rights without constitutional basis.
He argued for an originalist interpretation of the Constitution, where rights existed only as the Founding Fathers intended, without amendment. This approach aimed to return the country to its 'conservative' values and counteract the influence of liberal academics and media. Bork's speech at the first Federalist Society conference outlined the path for the right-wing legal movement over the next four decades, influencing the Reagan administration's approach to curtailing rights, as seen in the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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